The MAD Media

The Ecology of the Media: The Impact of the Telephone

Let’s say hypothetically it’s a Friday night and you decide to chat up your new love interest, however your version of chat up might very well be different than one a decade back. You text him,“Hey! Whats up?” to which he replies “Not much..” or something along those lines. Such instantaneous messaging has become second nature to teenagers of western culture, that it is frequently forgotten how new of a development it really is. In order to appreciate the phone, we must take a glance back into the past, and I mean further back than those bulky cell phones we now like to deny we or our parents once owned and deemed as ‘cool’.

Back in March 10, 1876 Alexander Bell was patented for his invention of the telephone. The telephone succeeded the telegraph as the first invention that elapsed the time needed to communicate. Before their invention, people would need to resort to using postal services to deliver and receive messages to people abroad. Their source of news and information would come from a community announcer, newspaper, or simply from word of mouth. This however, was not sufficient to communicate across greater distances. The telephone provided easy communication without the land barrier, or lengthy delivery time that resulted from the physical delivery of mail. People could now pick up a telephone and instantly be able to talk to someone a few communities away, which ultimately resulted in the heightened ability to spread ideas and knowledge abroad. Bell collaborated with two other men, Gardiner Hubbard and Thomas Sander’s to create the Bell Telephone Company. From this initial company, a franchise was born that continues to boom to this day.

However, we have since come a long way from the first transmitted phone call, “Mr. Watson --come here-- I want to see you.”(Alfred). Since the initial products from the bell telephone company came out, society has seen a large shift in trend when it comes to the use of technology and its role within society, a shift that can be observed throughout a lifespan. This has led to the technology of the cable-telephone becoming obsolete with the rise in popularity of the personal cellular device. What makes the cell phone in higher demand than the traditional telephone is its convenience in both its size and non-restrictive range of telephone service. With cell phones now including an increasing number of functions, it is making other utilities less in demand.
As media guru Marshall McLuhan would point out, the phone has become an extension of our own body, the ear. According to McLuhan, technological innovations are extensions of human abilities and senses that alter the sensory balance. It could be said that the telephone gave a sensory balance of the ear to the eye that had been dominating since the invention of the phonetic alphabet (Playboy). However with the continuous advancement in the cellular field more and more of these bodily extensions are controlled by the “phone”.

It seems to be as if we are moving towards a single object that contains all information, the ultimate piece of technology. I admit I am already finding it difficult to distinguish between technologies as devices such as the iPod touch include features of virtual games, camera, wireless internet, mp3 player etc. The phone has changed from being an amplification of the ear to the amplification of the eye. With such a change in purpose it almost seems unethical to call it a cell phone anymore.

Work Cited

Alfred, Randy. "March 10, 1876: 'Mr. Watson, Come Here ... '." (2008): .

Playboy. "The Playboy Interview: Marshall McLuhan." Playboy Magagzine (1969): .